Science News

All the latest stories on newscientist.com: whale chasing, Rosetta selfie, sight improved with stem cells, porcupine-inspired surgical staples, and more

SIRT6 --- a protein that inhibits the growth of liver and colon cancers --- can promote the development of skin cancers by turning on an enzyme that increases inflammation, proliferation and survival of sun-damaged skin ...

People who risk their lives to save strangers may do so without deliberation.

Check out these photos of a combination sundial-moondial dating to the 12th century that was discovered near Rostov, Russia. Archaeologists say the markings on the artifact correspond to positions of the sun and moon thr...

Stem cells, with their ability to develop into many different types of tissue, have long been touted for their promise in regenerative medicine, yet treatments have been slow to develop. But now, a small study found that...

The United States has the most expensive health care system in the world, its gleaming hospitals outfitted with the latest technologies and equipment, and yet health care professionals couldn't prevent a Texas nurse trea...

For this week's podcast, we've dug up an old podcast that we published last year (originally published July 24, 2013). For those that missed it, the podcast covered the physics behind a world like Westeros: the setting f...

The unassuming rock goby, a small fish that can be found in rock pools around the United Kingdom, southern Europe and North Africa, is a master of camouflage, a new study finds.

Depending on whom you ask, e-cigarettes are either a great tool to get people to quit smoking or another way to get people hooked on nicotine.

Scientific American senior editor Josh Fischman joins nanoscience researchers Shana Kelly, Yamuna Krishnan, Benjamin Bratton and moderator Bridget Kendall from the BBC World Service program The... --

Evidence-based guidelines play an increasing role in setting standards for medical practice and quality but are seldom systematically evaluated in the practice setting. Investigators evaluated the rate of physician adher...

Rapid weight gain from eating foods rich in saturated fats quickly increased bad cholesterol levels, even in otherwise healthy and normal-weight adults in their mid-20s. The opposite was true in those who ate products ma...

The ancestors of modern-day kangaroos, giant marsupials with rabbitlike faces, may have walked upright on two feet, sans any hopping, a new study finds.

Having had children -- particularly early in life -- and a dysfunctional romantic relationship are the two most frequently cited reasons when low-income mothers are asked about why they find themselves in poverty, report...

Engineers have developed a surgical robot designed to perform brain surgery by entering through the cheek instead of the skull that can operate on a patient in an MRI scanner. Additionally, the engineers have designed th...

Our advanced civilisation is built on easily exploited coal, oil and gas. New Scientist explores an alternative history that holds lessons for us all (full text available to subscribers)

Hurricane Gonzalo continued on its path toward Bermuda on Wednesday with sustained winds of up to 125 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. The Category 3 storm could become even stronger throughout the ...

If you are one of the 200,000 people who signed up for Mars One's ambitious program to colonize the red planet, here is something that might make you reconsider the decision. According to a study conducted by a team of g...

A 26-year-old nurse named Amber Joy Vinson was identified Wednesday morning as the second U.S. health care worker to be infected with Ebola after treating Thomas Eric Duncan for the viral disease at Texas Health Presbyte...

The second health care worker in Texas to contract Ebola lived alone and had no pets, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said Wednesday. The unidentified woman tested positive for the deadly virus after caring for an Ebola patie...

The Rosetta spacecraft has captured a comet selfie, adding to its impressive collection of images as it orbits comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The European Space Agency's Rosetta mission consists of the orbiter, which w...

Scientists report an important scientific breakthrough: that a protein found in the retina plays an essential role in the function and survival of light-sensing cells that are required for vision. These findings could ha...